


The Turn of the Earth

by onthedriftinthetardis (on_the_drift)



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, PWP, Romance, Stargazing, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 00:52:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5891824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/on_the_drift/pseuds/onthedriftinthetardis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor takes Rose to view a historic meteor storm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Turn of the Earth

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the timepetalsprompts weekly drabble prompt, "Ten or Tentoo x Rose, meteor shower/storm." Yes, I know it's my own prompt, which is probably dreadfully tacky of me. What can I say? I had an idea and ran with it. Also, it's not a drabble. And I don't know where all this smut came from, either.
> 
> Unbeta'd. This is the first piece of creative writing I've published in years, and my first in the Whoniverse. Gentle constructive criticism is welcome.

The summer night was quiet except for the low roar of the river cascading over smooth stones, and, intermittently, the faraway call of a great horned owl back from the hunt. Elk and marmots and other daytime animals were curled up asleep, while the small creatures of the night scurried about their business nearly silently among fir and spruce trees. The scents of the conifers and blue lupines filled the high riparian air. Aspen leaves fluttered in the light breeze. And the silhouettes of great snow-capped mountains loomed in the distance. 

A mule deer fawn pricked up her ears and awoke with a start, sensing something unusual. Her mother nuzzled her reassuringly, then paused, suddenly alert. More and more animals stirred, and waited nervously for the arrival of the coming storm. For one long moment, it was as if the whole valley held its breath, and then it started, faintly at first, but growing ever stronger, an eerie and foreign sound that pierced the solitude of this place.

The elk, the deer, and the small creatures fled, the owl flew off, and the marmot retreated to its burrow as a large, blue wooden box cycled into being at the edge of the clearing. 

Moments later, a tall, thin, spiky-haired man in a long coat burst from a door in the side of the contraption, followed by a blonde woman in jeans and a dark jacket. The man stopped a few meters from the box and the woman ran into him and laughed as he turned back to steady her, his hands on her trim waist. He grinned and took half a step backwards, taking one of her hands in his as he reluctantly removed his other hand from her middle, and turned it into a wild gesture into the clear night. 

“Well, here we are!”

“But where's here, Doctor?” the woman replied with a hint of frustration. “What's the big mystery? And what happened to going somewhere warm? Did you take a wrong turn at the last wormhole?” she teased.

He rocked back and forth on his heels. “Rose Tyler, I'm surprised at your lack of fortitude,” he sniffed. “We are near what will be, in about a thousand years’ time, the town of Ridgway, in the Colorado Rockies, in the United States of America,” he enthused. “But at the moment, we are the only people for scores of miles around. Even the Utes won't arrive for more than another century, and they're the first tribe of humans to settle in this area.”

Rose looked around her, taking in what little she could see of the scenery. “Well, it is lovely, or at least I can tell that it would be during the daytime,” she laughed. 

The Doctor moved behind her, rested his hands on her shoulders, and squeezed lightly. “Look up,” he murmured in her ear. 

Rose was unable to suppress the small tremor that ran through her at the feel of his hands on her shoulders, his low voice and warm breath. He had to notice that, didn't he? They had grown so close over the past few weeks and months, surely he had to? On the other hand, despite his protests that he “danced,” she wasn't entirely certain that it was something he did, at least not anymore. To be fair, she hadn't dared cross that threshold either, afraid it might spook him into running. But tonight felt different somehow, the space between them smaller, the gap electric with potential. She looked up, and gasped. 

A shooting star whizzed across a sky full of more stars than she had ever seen before from Earth, back-lit by the blues and purples of the Milky Way. Before she could say anything, two more streaks of light crossed the sky, then another, and another. 

“It's beautiful!” exclaimed Rose, unable to tear her eyes away from the sky now, in case she missed another falling star. “It's a meteor shower, and it's summer, so… it's the Perseids, yeah?” she asked. 

“Gold star for the lady!” his voice beamed. “Well done, Miss Tyler. You have been paying attention!” 

“Always!” she said with a grin. “Well… most times,” she qualified. “Sometimes,” she added, “When you’re speaking plain English.”

“What?!” said the Doctor, turning her around to face him. “I always speak to you in plain English!” he insisted.

She gave him a crooked smile, causing his outrage to derail at once.

“Welllll… I suppose there are times I get a bit technical,” he admitted. 

“Never mind, I'm not bothered by all of your techno babble,” she grinned, and then, before his spluttering could turn into a verbal objection, she bit her lip and continued, “I love it. It's part of you. You wouldn't be the Doctor without it,” she finished with a cheeky smile. 

A slow grin appeared on the Doctor’s face at this, and he gathered her into a bear hug, which she enthusiastically returned. The Doctor set her back down, still beaming at her.

Rose grinned back at him, shaking her head. She looked back up at the sky, still held loosely in the Doctor’s arms, and took in the spectacle above her. “It’s amazing! But it’s not usually like this, is it?” She looked back down, meeting the Doctor’s eyes. 

“No, quite right!” he said. “Tonight is a very special night — it’s not just a meteor shower, it’s a meteor storm! The Perseids usually get about a hundred meteors per hour, maybe twice that in an extraordinary year, but every so often the activity ramps up and there are upwards of a thousand meteors per hour!” he enthused. “That’s when it’s a meteor storm, and this is one of the biggest ever. It’s really just getting started — the moon is still up, too, and the storm will be even more visible after it sets in an hour or so.”

Rose nodded, and looked up again. Already the storm seemed to have intensified. She watched the meteors streaking overhead for a long moment, until she became conscious that the Doctor wasn’t watching the storm so much as he was watching her. She bit her lip, and looked back down at him, into his dark eyes, then, unconsciously, glanced at his mouth, wondering for the umpteenth time what it would be like to kiss him properly. She dimly recalled the kiss she’d given him while possessed by that bitchy trampoline Cassandra, but that hardly counted. More recently, he’d actually kissed her, after coming back to the flesh in ancient Rome, which she had thrilled to despite its brevity. But she wanted more — a proper snog, as her mates would have said, with everyone in their right mind and not distracted by some form of running for their lives. And more than that, she wanted him. Lately, she’d begun to suspect that he wanted her, too — the long looks, the constant hand-holding, the hugs — oh, the hugs! He was a truly outstanding hugger. And now, her science nerd, with the biggest astronomical show in Earth’s history above them, was watching her instead. She bit her lip, considering what it meant. She was unaccountably nervous.

Rose reluctantly stepped back out of the Doctor’s embrace and put her hands in her jacket pockets, rocking back on her heels. “It’s chilly here,” she noted, “So why did you tell me to wear my swim costume underneath?” she asked curiously.

“Ahhhh, that would be telling” said the Doctor mysteriously.

“Oh come on, please!”

“Ah ah, Rose Tyler, you’ll just have to wait and see!” he grinned.

She rolled her eyes. “All right then,” she smiled, unable to be cross with him when he was grinning at her like an idiot.

The Doctor moved farther away from the TARDIS, into the middle of the clearing, sweeping the ground with his eyes until he stopped, removed his long coat, and spread it on the ground over a thick patch of grass, surrounded by wildflowers. “Mi’lady,” he gestured from Rose to the coat, “your bower,” he finished with a flourish.

Rose lay down on the far side of the long coat, and he lay down beside her and took her hand in his, reminding her of the brief, happy time they had spent on New Earth before getting waylaid by Cassandra. Only this time, the scent of alpine flowers wafted to her nose instead of apple grass. 

“No cat nuns this time, I promise,” said the Doctor in a low voice, and squeezed her hand. 

Rose squeezed his hand back and smiled at him, then looked back up at the stars. They watched the cosmic show for a while, the Doctor giving a running commentary on meteors, meteorites, and meteoroids, and the differences among them. Rose tried to pay attention to what he was saying, but after a while, her mind wandered, and she just let his voice wash over her. 

The night had started off chilly, and now it was getting quite cold, and the Doctor noticed that she had started shivering. He sat up and reached into one of his coat pockets and started pulling out a small piece of cloth that kept getting bigger and bigger. Rose had seen magicians pull ropes of silk handkerchiefs out of their sleeves: this was a bit like that, except instead of a long line, this was a large sheet of cloth. The Doctor looked at Rose and raised his eyebrows as he yanked the rest of it out with a flourish. It appeared to be a large towel with a motif of banana trees, and one large word at the bottom — “Villengard.” The Doctor spread it over Rose before settling under it himself. 

“Come here,” the Doctor said, opening his arms. Rose placed one arm around his waist and snuggled up against his side, her head on his chest, sighing as even his slight warmth began to penetrate the chill. He reached down and took her hand in his, and hummed contentedly. 

“Is this a towel?” asked Rose in bemusement, lifting a corner of the fabric to inspect it more closely. 

“It is indeed,” he said with a smirk. 

“Like in those ‘Hitchhiker's Guide’ books in the TARDIS library?” she continued, “The ones you insisted I read? Bit of a fanboy, are you?” she teased. 

“Who do you think gave Douglas Adams the idea?” he huffed. “Massively useful things, towels,” he said. “And yes,” he continued after a pause, “I was a fan of his. Brilliant mind, and still funny five hundred years in the future when all of his works were reprinted in a special edition -- that's the collection in the TARDIS library.” 

Rose nodded. “So you met him?” she asked, and the Doctor nodded. 

“Yeah, twice, in fact. Once many years before you were born, I met him in a pub and had a long conversation with him. He was fascinated by me,” he said, without any inkling that this might sound egotistical. “We got a bit drunk. Weeellll, _I_ got a bit drunk. Douglas was pickled,” he said, smiling at the memory. 

When the Doctor was silent for a long moment, Rose said, “And the second time?” she prodded gently. 

He looked back up at the stars and the meteor storm. “It was at a lecture in California. I saw him after the talk. He didn't know who I was, of course, since I'd regenerated since I'd seen him, but we still had a rapport, and we had a chat about his work on endangered species. That was in 2001, shortly before his death.”

Rose hugged him. “I'm sorry.”

The Doctor hugged her back. “Yeah,” he whispered. They lay in each other's arms and turned to watch the blaze of falling stars. 

After a while, the Doctor resumed his monologue. He was talking about the local Native Americans now, “the band of Utes known as the Uncompahgre who would come to inhabit this land in another thousand years or so,” he explained. 

“There is a famous chief called Ouray — they'll name a town near here and a lot of other things after him — and he was born under a meteor storm in 1833, the Leonids in November,” the Doctor said “Was thought to be a great omen, and perhaps they were right, because he turned out to be a brilliant chief.” The Doctor rambled on about Ute history, then onto the flora beneath and around them, while Rose made appropriate sounds of interest at intervals. 

The meteor shower had become quite intense, and oddly, the Doctor fell silent. Was it her imagination, or had his hearts sped up? He began to gently stroke her hand with his thumb, and Rose's breath caught. 

The Doctor shifted onto his side, gently rolling her over onto her back, still holding her hand, and looked down at her. She met his gaze, taking in his dark, lidded eyes and parted lips, and knew, just before it happened, that he was going to kiss her. 

“Rose,” he purred, and lowered his mouth to hers. The kiss started off gently, almost tentatively, but the press of his lips against hers quickly escalated as his tongue delicately traced first her lower lip, then flicked at the seam of her lips, asking her, without words for once, if he was welcome to deepen the kiss. Rose opened her mouth to his, and both of them moaned as their tongues met. The Doctor growled and deftly used his tongue, lightly teasing her palate until she groaned into his mouth. She reached up and ran her fingers across his sideburns and into his soft hair, mussing it into more of a textured disarray than ever, then gripped the back of his head to pull his mouth harder against hers. 

Arousal coiled in her belly, pooling lower down, and she swept her tongue into his mouth, marveling at how good he tasted, like mint and honey. He whimpered, and began exploring her mouth again, using the tip of his tongue, until Rose was breathless and a little lightheaded. He pulled back a little, just enough to let her catch her breath, and then he was kissing her again, gorgeous, wet, open-mouthed kisses that made her head spin, and her hips pushed into his, blindly seeking friction. She encountered his hardening length above her and ground her hips into his, causing him to groan loudly and press into her center, both of them crying out at the contact. 

The Doctor was trembling as he gave her one last kiss and rolled back off of her, breathing heavily. He took Rose’s hand in his and squeezed it reassuringly. ”Sorry,” he said, “Too fast. I just need to…. slow down a bit, or this is all going to be over much too quickly.”

Rose squeezed his hand back. “S’not your fault, Doctor,” she said apologetically. “I shouldn’t have pushed so hard.” she said, rolling her eyes and laughing at herself as she realized what she’d just said. He smiled at her and turned back on his side, cupping one side of her face in his free hand, lightly brushing her temple with his fingers. 

“Is this really happening?” she asked.

“It is if you want it to,” he said quietly.

“‘Course I do,” she said. “I’ve wanted this… wanted to be with you, forever,” she blushed. 

He grinned, a bit egotistically, she thought, though perhaps it wasn't undeserved, if his kissing skills were any indication. As if he knew what she had been thinking, he gave her a soft, lingering kiss. “I want this, too,” he admitted. “I have for a long time.” he continued, “I just… want to do it properly.” 

She nodded in agreement, and much to her surprise, he was on his feet and holding out his hand to her in an instant. Shaking her head, she took his hand and let him pull her up next to him. “You are such an alien,” she grinned, and he smiled back at her. “Now what?” she asked, bemusedly.

“Now, Rose Tyler,” he said, shaking out his long coat and the towel on top of it, putting on his coat again, and throwing the towel over his shoulder. “You will find out why I asked you to wear your bikini under your clothes,” he said, waggling his eyebrows. “Come on! Allons-y” he said, breaking into a run across the clearing, pulling her along behind him.

Rose ran into him just before they reached the river, and the Doctor caught her in his arms and used her momentum to swing her around, depositing her facing him, with the water at her back. He kissed her again sweetly but quickly, and turned her around to face the river, gesturing towards it with a flourish. “Here we are!” he said proudly. 

Rose squinted in the dim light, the reflections of shooting stars in the water, and then turned back to the Doctor quizzically. “It looks like … a rock pool?” she said uncertainly, struggling to see, and wondering if he'd really just interrupted what had promised to be their first shag to go swimming in what had to be nearly ice-cold water. _Alien_. 

He grinned at her. “Exactly!” he enthused. The pool was fairly large, maybe two and a half meters across and four meters wide, and the bottom was covered in a lighter substance than the rock — sand, perhaps — almost glowing in the sliver of moonlight still visible. She could see steam rising from the surface of the pool.

“Hang on,” she staved off whatever he was going to say next by holding up a hand. “I thought there weren't any people around? No one lives here for another thousand years, you said. So where did this pool come from?” 

He beamed at her as if she'd just gotten the right answer to a difficult physics problem. “Four points to Gryffindor!” he said. “I built it,” he said matter-of-factly. 

Rose goggled at him. “You built it? But… when? How? Why?”

“All good questions,” he said. “You humans sleep so much of the time, and I have to do *something* while you're snoring away the hours.”

“I don't snore!” Rose objected. 

“Like a lumberjack,” he said, rather unwisely. Rose glowered at him, looking as if she was going to raise an even more vehement objection, and he went on hastily. “Any-way, I'm stronger than I look — I moved most of the stones by hand, but I did use an iron rod, a bit like a long crowbar, to get the bigger stones in place.” 

Rose looked a bit impressed at this despite herself, and the Doctor took a moment to preen. “As to why… remember our friends the Uncompahgre? Uncompahgre means “hot water springs,” and for good reason. The Uncompahgre River is rife with hot springs, including that one just there,” he pointed to the side of the bank above the pool, just below a small alder tree. “See the steam rising from it? It comes out of the ground at just over 50 degrees, which makes the rest of the pool nice and hot.” 

He dropped her hand and removed his coat, setting it carefully on the river bank, and to Rose’s surprise, began to remove his suit. She watched him in dumb fascination as each layer was stripped off. When he was down to his light grey T-shirt and TARDIS-blue swim trunks, he stopped and turned to her.

“Rose,” he said gently, “want to come for a swim?” And he held out his hand. She nodded, went to him, and he started to unzip her black jacket. He paused, looking into her eyes. “This all right?” he said, and she nodded, feeling her heart pound and her breath quicken. He finished unzipping her jacket and carefully set it next to his coat. She only had on a light blouse beneath the warm jacket, and she immediately began to shiver in the cool breeze, goosebumps rising on her arms. The Doctor hugged her tightly, then ran his hands up and down her bare arms for a moment. “The sooner we get in the water, the faster we’ll warm up,” said the Doctor, and he started to remove his shirt. 

“Wait,” said Rose, finding her voice at last, “let me.” She stepped towards him and reached for the hem of his shirt, slowly pulling it off him, gradually revealing his pale skin. She skimmed her fingers along his obliques, then up and over the skin of his torso, and he trembled under her touch. He raised his arms and leaned forward so she could finish removing the shirt, and she took a step back to admire him. He was very thin, but his chest had just enough definition to be pleasing. Rose licked her lips unconsciously, her eyes moving furtively down to his navel, and below to the light trail of hair that disappeared into his trunks.

The Doctor watched her intently. He stepped forward and gripped the sides of her blouse, pausing until she nodded and raised her arms over her head so that he could finish removing the garment. He stared at the bikini top he had revealed with heavily lidded eyes. It was red, with cups that barely covered her breasts, and straps that criss-crossed in a complicated pattern in the back. 

“Beautiful,” he said, and he cupped her left breast in his hand, lightly running his thumb over her nipple. Rose squeaked, and her goosebumps got goosebumps. But he didn’t linger, and the next thing she knew he had her jeans unbuttoned and unzipped, had hooked his thumbs into the waistband, and pulled them down to her knees, and was kneeling in front of her, helping her out of her trainers and socks. He tossed them over with the rest of their clothes, and pulled her jeans down the rest of the way so she could step out of them. The jeans joined the pile, and just before she could complain of how cold the ground was, he lifted her into his arms and carefully carried her down to the edge of the rock pool. 

He set her down and jumped into the water, showing her that it was only waist deep, and held out his hand. “Come on in, Rose, the water’s fine!” he effused, and of course she took his hand and jumped in next to him. The water was very warm, on the verge of being too hot, but in the cold air, it felt wonderful, and she quickly sank to her knees with a sigh of appreciation. The bottom was covered in deep, fine sand, which again, she marveled at — there was no native sand here — he must have carried it in by hand. “How long have you been working on this?” she asked suddenly. He hesitated. 

“A long time,” he said. “Off and on…since… since before I regenerated,” he finished quietly.

“Oh,” said Rose, trying to take this revelation on board. She looked up, watching the meteor storm, giving herself time to think. What did it all mean? Had he created this pool, planned this night of falling stars, for her? And if he’d started it before he had even regenerated, did that mean his old self had felt the same way about her that he seemed to? It appeared that he had. She stood up and went to him, and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing tightly, tucking her head into his neck. 

“It's wonderful. Thank you,” she said simply, suddenly on the verge of tears. He hugged her back.

“You're welcome,” he said, as if her praise was both pleasing and unexpected. They stood like that for a long moment, until the chill of the air got to be too much for Rose, and she released him and sank back down into the water. He followed her, but then took her hand and propelled them both to the far side of the pool. “I made a sort of chair in the stones,” he explained as he sat down, pulling her into his lap as he leaned against the tilted back of the rock seat. “World’s first recliner!” he said, half jokingly. “I thought maybe we could watch the show from here, and stay warm while we’re doing it,” he suggested.

Rose gingerly settled herself in the Doctor’s lap and leaned back against his chest. He wrapped his left arm around her and pointed up with his right. “Most of the meteors radiate from that constellation, there,” he went into lecture mode. “That’s Perseus, where the name of the meteor shower comes from.”

“Who was Perseus,” Rose asked, needing to say something to distract herself from the arousal spiraling in her belly at being this close to him, and to stop herself from squirming against the hardening length behind her.

“In Greek mythology, Perseus was the son of Danaë, a hero who was sent to kill Medusa. Perseus slew Medusa in her sleep, and Pegasus and Chrysaor appeared from her body,” said the Doctor absently. 

Rose was about to ask him if he was all right — it wasn’t usual for him to be anything less than bubbling over with enthusiasm when answering a question she’d asked, thrilled she’d wanted more information — when the hand holding her to him began to wander, stroking her belly in circles. At the same time, he kissed the top of her head, and nuzzled her hair. She drew in a sharp breath, and let go a delighted gasp as he nibbled on her ear, and kissed his way down her neck, pausing to suck at the junction of her neck and shoulder. He feathered kisses along her shoulder until he reached the strap of her bikini top. He ran a finger through the spaghetti strap on each side from the back up to the top, pausing as he delicately bit her neck, then drew the straps off her shoulder, noting her heartbeat speed up as he went along, and reveling in the small, helpless noises his actions produced in her, his cock hardening a bit more at every gasp and mew.

Rose reached down with both hands and felt his legs under her fingers, and lightly scratched her way down as far as she could reach without moving away from him, then back up and over the fabric of his trunks. He paused for a moment, distracted, then reached around her and cupped her breasts in his hands, flicking his thumbs over her fabric-encased nipples. She hissed, and he gave her breasts a light squeeze before putting his hands on her shoulders and pushing her forward slightly. He reached between them, hooking his thumbs under the back of her bikini top and pushing it up off over her head, and flung the flimsy garment up on the river bank with the rest of their clothes. 

“Brilliant,” he said with a low groan, reaching around to cup her breasts in his hands. She was inclined to agree as he began massaging them, circling and flicking his thumb across her sensitive nipples. She let out a surprised cry as he pinched them lightly, tweaking the tips. She felt a sharp stab of arousal, and groaned loudly. They were both breathing heavily, and his engorged cock twitched against her backside through his trunks. He continued to caress her breasts, alternating between them, as he reached down to her belly with his right hand, inching down until his fingers slid into her bikini bottoms. He held still for a moment. “All right, Rose?” 

“God, yes!” Rose groaned, pressing into his hand. He carefully slid his middle finger between her legs, dipping into the overflowing well of slick liquid inside her, then back up to lightly circle the hard nub above her center. She involuntarily bucked up into his fingers, and he stopped what he was doing. “Ah ah,” he scolded gently, “hold still.” Rose stilled her hips with great effort, and he resumed his stroking, this time using two fingers, until she was mewling, gasping with the effort of not moving. She squeezed her eyes shut, and wondered if she was going to start hyperventilating, she was breathing so fast. 

It felt so good, what he was doing, and yet she was dying for more pressure, more friction. Suddenly he stopped circling, and wrapped his left arm around her waist, holding her still. Rose cried out in frustration. “Shh,” he soothed, “open your eyes, Rose. Look up.” Rose complied hastily, with the fervent hope he would start touching her again, and she gasped. The sky was alive with streaks of light, so many that she could see the distant gleam of snow on the mountains surrounding them. 

Then the Doctor’s fingers were on her again, resuming their stroking but this time in light flicks of her clit, and this time when she thrust her hips upward in search of more friction he allowed it, and gave it to her. Faster, harder, and, incredibly, Rose realized as her lower body started to tremble, in time to the wild streaks of light above them, he continued caressing her until she was shaking so hard it was a wonder he didn’t lose contact. Her arousal coiled tightly around the nub between her legs, radiating outward,, and as she felt it start to uncoil, she spread her legs wantonly, and only just managed to get one word out: “Please!” The Doctor plunged his forefingers deep inside her while his thumb took over stroking her. She let out a loud, wildly modulating moan, dimly registering his simultaneous shout as he continued to flutter his thumb in time with the meteor storm above, guiding her through her release as he murmured encouragement in her ear. In that extended moment, she felt it: the turn of the earth.

When they first met, he had told her he could feel them falling through space, clinging to the surface of her tiny world, and now, in that moment she felt it, too, and in a flash of understanding, knew what it was like to be him: gentle but dangerous, easy to befriend but starving for intimacy, bursting with life, but always so close to death. And in understanding him, she also realized for the first time what she meant to him, how loved and precious she was. 

She let go, falling to Earth again, and he caught her and held her tightly against him, breathing in time with her. “Oh my god…,“ she started, but words failed her, and she shook her head, tears starting to form in her eyes, and to her horror, she started to sob. She worried that the Doctor would take it the wrong way, but he seemed to understand, and turned her into his embrace, holding her close until her sobs faded into silence. 

“Are you all right, Rose?” he asked at last, and she nodded. He kissed her tenderly. 

“Yeah, m’good,” she said. “Better than. Only… it was a bit overwhelming at the end,” she said. 

“I’m sorry,” the Doctor said worriedly. 

“No, it’s okay,” she said, drawing back enough to kiss him, “More than okay. It was brilliant,” she said.

He hugged her and settled her in front of him again, rubbing her belly, and soothing them both. 

Rose was floating on a cloud of bliss, so that it took her quite some time to register that he no longer had an erection. 

“Are you...did you come, too?” she asked delicately, turning her head to look him in the eyes at last.

“Quite spectacularly,” he said with a lazy grin. 

Rose smiled back at him, relieved that he didn’t seem to be the least bit disappointed, but she couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed, herself. They watched the meteor storm above them for a long while. They fell quiet for so long, the silence became awkward.

“What’s the matter, Rose?” he asked solicitously.

“Nothing! Nothing, it’s fine,” she said, rather unconvincingly. He quirked his left eyebrow, and she seemed to realize she needed to offer some explanation.

“It’s just…” she paused, then continued in a rush, “It’s not that that wasn’t incredible, because it was, it was absolutely amazing. But what about you, yeah? Didn’t you want to… y’know, shag?” she held her breath.

“Oh yes,” he practically purred. “You have no idea how much. But I promise you, by the time we get back to the TARDIS, I’ll be more than ready to continue this.”

Rose grinned at him, her tongue touching the side of her mouth. She kissed him teasingly, and then disentangled herself from him and hopped off his lap. She started to back away through the water and crooked her finger, beckoning to him. He grinned back and followed her to the edge of the pool, where she hopped out and stood, extending her hand. Raising an eyebrow, he took her hand and allowed her to help him out of the steaming water. 

He was heavier than he looked, but she got him out, and they scrambled to dry themselves off with the one large towel, mock-squabbling over it, and threw their clothes back on. Rose got her trainers on before he did, and sprinted for the TARDIS, laughing. The Doctor grinned as he finished tying his Chucks and ran after her, getting to the door just behind her. Rose looked over her shoulder at him, then beyond to the sky and the storm. 

The Doctor only had eyes for her, and took her face in his hands as he bent to kiss her. She kissed him back hard, and he pressed her up against the TARDIS door with his hips, letting her feel that he was, indeed, ready to continue what they had started. They broke apart long enough for Rose to get out her key and open the door, and he followed her inside, closing the door behind him. 

The TARDIS lamp cycled, the ship groaned, and a whirlpool of wind shook the trees as the blue box disappeared. The leaves on the trees stopped shaking, peace returned to the valley, and after a while, the animals came back. The meteor storm raged on into the morning, and the Earth continued to turn. 


End file.
